Underappreciated
by Caz Malfoy
Summary: Crossover with Miami. One can only take so much disappointment. SLASH.


_Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:Miami or NY. The Lyrics used belong to Christina Aguilera. I'm just borrowing them and no profit is being made._

Underappreciated

For the tenth time that evening Danny checked his phone anxiously. He growled in annoyance when he saw he had no messages or missed calls. He had been sitting at the bar waiting for his lover to arrive for ninety minutes and there was still no sign of the other man.

The waitress smiled and took Danny's empty glass from in front of him. "Your date not turn up, hon?" she asked, flashing him a sympathetic smile.

Danny sighed and pulled his wallet out. "Looks like it." He placed several bills on her tray, more than enough to cover his tab and leave her with a decent tip for being his only company during the evening.

She smiled in thanks and patted his arm gently. "He doesn't realise how lucky he is, honey," she said soothingly. At Danny's startled look she grinned. "I've been waiting tables here for twenty years, I know a gay man when I see one."

Danny blushed and mumbled a goodbye to his shoes before leaving the bar. The weather did absolutely nothing to help his mood. It was raining heavily and the cold wind made his cheeks sting. He had originally intended to spend a romantic evening with his partner but since the other man had other ideas, Danny was more than happy to go back to his apartment, grab a beer and watch a game he had recorded during the week.

x

Lindsay looked up when Danny stormed his way into the break room. "Bad night?" she asked.

"You could say that," Danny growled as he slammed some coins into the drinks machine.

"Your date didn't like what she was getting?"

"It generally helps if your date shows up in the first place," Danny snapped. He sighed and lowered his head. "I'm sorry," he apologised. "It's just… this isn't the first time it's happened. At first it was okay, only happening occasionally. But I'd still get a phone call apologising or at least a text message. And for the past two months I've had nothing."

"Why don't you say something?"

"I've tried," Danny sighed, slouching down onto one of the overstuffed chairs. "But every time I try to mention it, I can't bring myself to say anything. It's the first serious relationship I've been in for a long time and the last thing I want to do is fuck it up."

"By the sound of it, you're not the one that's fucking up," Lindsay pointed out. "He is." She laughed as Danny's eyes widened. "Danny," she patted his leg, "of course I worked it out. Don't worry about it."

Danny smiled gratefully; for a while now he had wished he had someone to talk to about what was going on in his personal life but he didn't think anyone would understand. The only person that he knew would understand was Aiden and she was… Well, Danny couldn't even think about her because it hurt too much.

Mac came to the door of the room, calling Lindsay out to a case. The young woman looked at Danny questioningly before she got to her feet. The blonde nodded his head, telling her that he was fine and she should go with Mac.

This was his problem. He had to think of something to do on his own. He just had no idea what.

x

After a twelve hour shift Danny wanted nothing more than to crash into bed and sleep for at least eight hours. But the instant he stepped across the threshold of his apartment his cell phone rang.

Danny debated whether or not to answer the call; he could let it go through to voice mail and pretend he had been asleep. But a little voice in his head was telling that hiding away from his lover would not make his problems go away.

"Yeah?" he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

"You doing anything tonight?" the voice on the other end of the line asked.

"Sleeping. Tim," he glanced at his watch, "it's four in the morning. I've only just finished work and I'm almost dead on my feet. The only thing I want to do is go out at this time."

"Oh," Tim mumbled dejectedly and Danny couldn't help the stab of shame that flew through him at the disappointment in Tim's voice. "It's okay. Get some sleep," he quickly said goodbye and ended the call, leaving Danny holding the phone and listening to the dial tone.

x

It was eight thirty in the evening and Danny was finally sitting opposite Tim, laughing and joking as though nothing had happened a few days before.

The waitress came over with their drinks and Danny recognised her from the previous night. She looked at Tim and then back at Danny, who nodded his head a little. The woman glared at Tim and flashed Danny a smile before heading back to the bar.

"What was that for?" Tim asked in astonishment, watching her walk away.

"Could be something to do with the fact that you stood me up three nights ago," Danny mumbled into his beer bottle.

"What? I never stood you up!"

Danny snorted and slammed his bottle down. "Like hell you didn't. I was waiting here for ninety fucking minutes, Tim," he hissed. "On Sunday we were supposed to meet here before going to a club."

Tim frowned before his brown eyes widened in horror. "Shit," he muttered. "I swear to God, Danny. I totally forgot. I had a case that needed to get done before close of business and when I realised what the time was I was too exhausted to do anything but sleep."

"And what about every other time before that?" Danny demanded loudly, not caring that they now had a crowd of people listening in on what they were saying. "You do it at least three times a month. Is work more important than I am?"

"Of course not," Tim argued indignantly.

"Then what the hell is it? I thought the whole point of you moving up here was so that we could have more time with each other. But it seems that ever since you came to the city we've been doing everything according to your schedule."

"We don't…"

"What about when you called me up the other night?" Danny pointed out. "It was four in the morning and you expected me to drop everything for you and go out. You couldn't care less that I'd just worked for over half a day straight."

Danny got to his feet and dropped a few bills on the table. "I love you," he whispered, "you know I do. But I think you need to work out what you want."

On his way out he passed the waitress who grinned at him through her tears and gave him the thumbs up.

x

When Lindsay found Danny in the trace lab, she was horrified to find that her friend had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. "How much sleep did you get last night?" she asked in concern, sitting down next to him.

Danny glanced at his watch. "About five minutes," he calculated. He yawned widely before apologising.

He sighed when Lindsay asked him what was going on before taking a deep breath and delving into the whole story of what had happened the night before.

By the time he had finished, Danny could have sworn that Lindsay's eyes were misting over. Before she could speak, the phone on the desk rang and Danny snatched it up.

"I gotta go to reception," he told her in confusion, replacing the receiver. "There's something there for me."

Lindsay frowned. "Any ideas?"

"Not one," Danny shook his head. "Come on."

x

If Danny had been expecting anything, Tim standing in the lobby wearing a suit was definitely not on the list of things.

"What are you doing here?" Danny asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Come to apologise," Tim admitted. "I've been thinking about what you said and you're right. I do take you for granted. So… I'm sorry."

"You think an apology's gonna cut it?"

Tim shook his head. "I know it's not. That's why I've booked us onto a plane for this evening." He handed Danny two tickets.

"Hawaii?" Danny read aloud. "Tickets to Hawaii?"

Tim nodded. "I was hoping, you'd let me make it up to you. All those times that I promised I'd be there and I wasn't."

Danny bit his lip and made the mistake of glancing at Lindsay out of the corner of his eye. The petite woman had tears rolling down her cheeks and her hand was over her mouth.

"Fine," he whispered. "We'll go to Hawaii. But don't think that you're back in my good books," he added. "You still fucked up, Speed."

"I know I did." He smiled sadly. "And I'm really sorry. Hurting you is the last thing I want."

Danny smiled as well, fighting back tears, telling himself that he wouldn't cry at work. "We'll go to Hawaii," he agreed, taking a few steps forward and hugging Tim, not caring where he was. "But if you do something like that again, I will kill you," he threatened. "And I'm a CSI, I could hide the evidence."

_I remember when it all first began  
We were tight right from the start  
It wasn't long before you came on strong  
Trying hard to win my heart  
_

_I played hard to get  
But I couldn't help but give up my heart in the end  
You were thoughtful  
Careful not to hurt the relationship _

What happened to those days  
When you used to be compassionate?  
Caring what I thought and said  
So attentive, a gentleman

_Now its hard to turn your head  
Away from the TV set  
Taking me for granted lately _

_And frankly its gotta quit _

Ooh I feel underappreciated  
Now help me out  
If you know what I'm talking about

_I said I'm feeling underappreciated  
For all the time and effort  
I have put in this commitment _

Take it back again  
To the very beginning  
When our love was something new  
Back when romance was important  
And not just another thing to do

_I was feeling high on loves delight  
Thought Id never come back down  
Now it seems that you and me  
Have lost our solid ground _

After time I realized I seem to give  
More than I get  
Funny how things seem to change  
After a few years commitment

_Used to talk for hours on end  
Of our dreams while we lay in bed  
I miss those days when you stayed awake  
Now you roll over and snore instead _

I miss the nice massages  
The long phone calls and the  
Way you talked how it turned me on

Miss the bubble baths  
Had the sweetest laughs  
I'm needin those days back

- Underappreciated, Christina Aguilera_  
_


End file.
